Ok hope this answers a few questions. Just got in after a long day out coaching so tried to put these photos so they are a bit clearer and put them on a dark background with good lighting to try and show the grains up on the photo.
The first photo is of 2 of what I am calling a butterfly 1 that are made up ready to go out and the middle one is of a pure grade 1 cleft. Now try and look through the staining, on one bat it is easier to do as it is minimal the other has a little more in it. Try and compare the grains on them to the one in the middle that is a pure grade 1 cleft in its raw state. Hopefully you will see that the grains are very very similar minimum 7 straight and true both are very light clefts and response superb.
The second picture is of some raw butterfly clefts that we are classing as standard butterfly clefts. Whilst they have lovely straight grains they have below 7 in fact by the time they are cut to correct width one will have 5 on and have quite a few little pin marks and blemishes in them unlike the other two. Many of these are still light in weight but are not special clefts.
As far as the stain is concerned yes if the stain is smack in the middle of the bat it will take a touch longer to open up but it will still fly off the face and possibly last longer too
Staining and weight, yes people say the more colour the more weight in the bat, strangely enough in this batch we have picked out they are pretty light. In fact I sent a bat out the other day that was full of colour and it weighed 3lb 3 in its raw state with the handle in, normally in any range average out at 3lb 7 or 8 in our top grades in that particular stage of our process. In fact I was talking to Trevor ward ex Kent and Leicester today who I have been coaching with and he was delighted in seeing butterfly bats being brought back in and said he used to love finding a lovely grained butterfly that pinged.
My view is over the years the grade ones have been converted to almost extinction and grains and clean faces are at a premium. If we don't look after the butterfly clefts as manufacturers the same will happen as popularity builds so my view is to try and manage the quality of these just as everyone does with the other grading. We are lucky in that the majority of what we have selected are very light in weight and we have some stunners. This won't always be the case as we know its a natural product. Once again we are only wanting to put the best out to our customers and that is exactly what we are offering, I know we can't please everyone and cannot cater for all but we certainly are giving people a great option of quality at very good prices.
I understand where customers are coming from, I totally begrudge buying training gear trainers etc as I used to get them for free but when I do I always go for what I feel is the best for me Adidas they may cost more but I know that what I am buying is quality and it suits me. That's what we are trying to do with our equipment but we entered into this cricket world at a middle market price and give you offers on those so we try and look after people as much as we can along with honest and straight advice, often advising people to go for the cheaper option as I think it is more applicable to them.
So hope that explains things a little more
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Topic: Butterfly (Read 147868 times)